It has been a given that more education leads to greater occupational achievement. However, recent trends show a declining effect. To better understand the factors have been at play, we used nationwide survey data (JGSS and Japanese Census) and looked at the differences between the effect of education on men and women over time. We looked at two analyses: correlations between education and occupational prestige and also correspondence analysis. We found surprising differences between the two methods of analyses and interesting results. Our Correspondence analysis looked at the effect of education on occupation without assuming that prestige is the characteristic of greatest interest and without requiring that Education be an interval variable. We found two key attributes: first, the level of the technical nature of a person's occupation, with, for example, professionals scoring high and laborers low. Second, the level of having a job with power and discretion, with managerial jobs scoring high and service jobs such as being a clerk scoring low. Looking at the effect of education from these two dimensions yielded additional results. The effect of education has had an overall trend over time. Also, there were major gender and cohort differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]